The Church is Simple

Going through the book of Acts in a sermon series has been a refreshing reminder of the life of the church. Inasmuch as everyone talks about wanting to "do church like the first century church", we usually don't hit the mark. I can't help but think that we are seriously overcomplicating it.

It seems like there are at least three things we can say, keeping things pretty simple.

First, the church is founded on Jesus Christ. For any Christian, that ought to be the obvious one. You don't have the church without Jesus.

Second, the church is powered by the Holy Spirit. This message is consistent throughout the life of Jesus and of course carries through in the book of Acts. Jesus talks about the coming Holy Spirit to the disciples and then prays for them in John 17 that they would be sent out into the world. The order is important. In Acts, Jesus tells them to wait until they have the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit finally comes on the day of the first fruits of the harvest, the disciples receive the promised power and they go out and spread the message of the Gospel to massive response.

Third, the church is recognized by it's community. It seems to me that everything else that happens in the book of acts, and certainly the first description of the church in Acts 2, has this as it's center. The church restores bonds between people that were previously broken.

If I were to add a fourth, it would be that the church is sustained by it's prayers. I don't like the word "sustained", necessarily, because I think we are sustained by Jesus/the Holy Spirit but it's because of that sustenance that we ultimately pray. If the church recognized that we were totally dependent on Jesus work and the Spirit's power, we'd do a lot more praying. Prayer is one of the ways we activate the Spirit's work (activate here being used loosely; I don't intend to treat it like an on/off switch or something we can ultimately control.)

When we see what the church is doing, then, what we notice is that they are taking great care to remain on their foundation–that is, they are studying the Scripture that tells them about Jesus–they are continually seeking the Spirit–prayer–and they are doing all of this in community with one another. That community, in some cases, simply means that they have decided that doing life together is better than doing it apart. They hang out, they love one another, they want to be with one another, they weep with one another when necessary and laugh with one another when they can. They share amongst themselves. There isn't need in this community, because there would never be need in a family. And we are the family of God.

This is the fundamental essence of the church of Jesus Christ, who is bound together by Him and through him, and grows together into a family by the power of the Holy Spirit.

It's easy to miss the simplicity of what the church is called to be.

Building Relationships

I don't like fads. Most of the time, that means I was trying to be cool in sort of an uncool way, like when I didn't like the Dave Matthews Band in college because everyone else did. I didn't get the appeal. They were good and all, it's just that everyone else was obsessed so I figured it'd be more cool to be uncool. Lame. Whatever, I was in college. It was something to do.

I still don't like fads, but now it has more to do with fads in the Christian community and in church leadership and systems in particular. My rationale is different now than it used to be. It has nothing to do with being cool or uncool. It has more to do with missing the point.

In the mid-90's (and probably earlier but that's when I became aware of it) there was a push in the local church towards small groups. These small groups had all sorts of positive functions to them and they were supposed to supplement whatever was happening on Sunday morning in the church. They were "discipleship" focused. That was great. It was necessary. Something was missing, and "Small Groups" were the way we were going to address it.

Unfortunately, "small group" became equated with "bible study" and as a result it also became something that you could do without. Or at least, you could do it for a finite period of time. So you'd be a part of a small group for a year, maybe two years, and it would be great, but then you'd get away from it and the lasting impact was somewhat minimal.

Nowadays the term is "missional". We've discovered that–shockingly–most of us are terrible when it comes to openly sharing our faith or doing anything to advance the kingdom of God in deed. We might be aware that Jesus loves us; we just aren't really sure he loves anyone else. Or, we have faith, it just doesn't compel us to do anything. (That pesky book of James might cause us to question said faith, but I digress.) The corrective was to be missional, and form communities around the idea of being missional. That's great! But, I think it still it misses the point.

There's nothing wrong with "discipleship" and forming groups around the idea that we need help growing in our relationship with Jesus; "being sanctified". There's also nothing wrong with the idea that we need some help being missionaries and it's going to be easier if we have other people to do it with. Ultimately, though, I think that both discipleship and mission are bi-products of something else: Relationships.

We stink at growing in Christ because we stink at relationships. We have the resources we need, and we may even have the desire. But growth won't happen until we're in deep, meaningful, relationships with other believers. We experience Christ's love for us when we receive it from other believers; we experience what it means to love when we pour out that love on others. I think that the only safe place to grow in our relationship with Christ is in relationships with people where growth in Christ isn't necessary. They are going to love us anyway. Not surprisingly, that is the message of the Gospel.

The same thing goes for our mission. The more we fall in love with Jesus, the more that we will have a desire to spread the good news of His kingdom on earth, both in word and in deed.

That doesn't mean that we aren't intentional about some of the things we want to see happening in the context of those relationships. I just think we need to keep the most important thing the most important thing. We, our people, our church, need to be in deep, meaningful, and growing Christian relationships. Out of that will flow growth. Out of that will flow mission.

But it starts with relationships.